Chapter XXIV

1. THE great cities of the ancients in Jaffeth were destroyed by Joss (Te-in) and his evil spirits, who inspired mortals to war. And for the most part, it was a land of ruins, but thousands of cities, standing beside the broken walls, were spread over the entire breadth of the land.

2. Jehovih spake to Chine, saying: Now is a good time for My chosen. Behold My enemies, the idolaters; know thou them by their soldiers. They are weak now. They pant with the labor of their great battles. Let My people come out of their quarters and hold up their heads.

3. Say thou unto them, O Chine, there is no Joss, no Ho-Joss, no Te-in, no Po, no Po-Te-in, to make you afraid. And whilst the enemy resteth, bid My sons and daughters arise! They shall inhabit the land that is spoilt, and cause it to bloom and bring forth abundantly. Call up My outlawed race; the enemy is sick of his wounds; his heart is ashamed and disconsolate, he is cast down.

4. Chine went to A'shong and gathered up many converts, descendants of the Faithists, the pure Brahmins, the line of Zarathustra, the people of the Great All One, who accepted not Gods and Lords. And he established them, and invented plows and mattocks for digging the ground; for these implements had been lost and destroyed, hundreds of years, and no man knew how to make them.

5. Chine said unto them: This is a good philosophy; wait not till ye are well fed and clothed before ye bow down your heads at the altar of Jehovih. When ye have prayed and sung before Him, then go forth into the field to work. And He will bless you.

6. Remember the heathen, they say: First provide the natural body, and then the spirit. But I say unto you, Jehovih created them both together. And he who saith: First provide the natural body, never looketh to his spirit afterward.

7. In all things give ye precedence to the spirit; as the Creator is over all His works, so should the spirit of man be over man's works, and over his corporeal body also.

8. Herein laid the foundation of the wisdom of your forefathers, the Zarathustrians. For the heathen and idolater, who labor for self, what are they but servants unto the flesh?

9. Some people labor for the raising of the spirit, which is purity, and love, and goodness, and justice; such people are on the right road to become a great people. But when they strive, every man for himself, such people are beginning to fall.

10. Her boundaries may be large, and her people increasing, but she hah a canker worm within, that soon or late will let her down suddenly.

11. Two extremes meeting are always dangerous: great wealth, and extensive poverty. It not only devolveth on the rich to give their substance to the poor, but they shall go amongst them, teaching them and lifting them up.

12. He who doeth not this, consider how vain it is for him to pray to Jehovih. His prayer riseth not upward. Let him himself first answer the poor. This is the opening of his own soul, so Jehovih can reach him.

13. Remember thou that all men have judgment, and that they should be perfected to see things from their own standpoint, and not from thine. Consider, then, how unjust it is to foist thy opinions on any man, uncalled for.

14. Chine established families of the chosen, but limited them to two hundred; and to each family he gave one priest. But he gave privilege to four thousand people to dwell in one city.

15. Chine said: Ye have been afflicted with Gods; I was sent into the world by the Creator to deliver you unto liberty in the family. I am only a man. I have no authority in myself. Jehovih, the Creator, dwelleth freely in me. Ye can attain the same.

16. Because He is within me, this shall be called Chine-land. There is a time for this. My name is as a post to mark the time when the Creator began His temple of peace, which shall extend over all these people.

17. Jehovih saith: Why will man be vain of himself? Verily have I not created one man on the face of the earth that is himself. He is made up of all oddities, soul and body. Consider his flesh; whence he received it and sustaineth it. Not so much as one hair on his head is of his own making; neither is it made out of new material, but hath been used over and over forever.

18. Even so is his mind not his own; not even his simplest thought; but he is made up of borrowed things from beginning to end, for so I created him.

19. He imagineth I, Who created him, am nothing; but even his imagination he picked up from someone else. He gathereth a little here, and a little there, and then proclaimeth what he knoweth.

20. Chine said: One man saith: I am normal; neither angels or mortals rule over me! Yet he hath only boasted as a crazy man, who will say the same thing. Another saith: Behold my wisdom! the highest of angels course through me. Yet he knoweth not whether it be true or not. Neither do any of them know the fountain head. For if an angel say it, the angel himself is made up of borrowed knowledge.

21. Chine said: I saw a great mathematician one day, and he said: There are no Gods, nor Lords, nor angels, nor any All Person. Everything is void. He showed me a book he had, and I asked: Who made the book? He said: I made it; nay, I made not the cloth, nor the binding; I mean, I made the philosophy that is in the book; nay, I made not the philosophy, but found it; nay, it was not lost; I mean I led myself to find the philosophy; nay, a man cannot lead himself; I mean that I searched and found what was new to me. So, but little of that book was his, after all.

22. I saw three angels standing beside that man, and they were laughing at him. If I had asked the angels, they might have said: Nay, the thoughts were ours. And had I looked further I had seen angels back of them, claiming the same things. Yet, even such are not the highest.

23. Wherefore I say unto you: All things come from an All Highest, name ye Him what ye will. He who saith: Jehovih spake to me: He is the nearest the mark of all. For all good knowledge that cometh to man, is Jehovih's word to that man. Whether it come by an angel or by another man, or by p. 529 the commonest corporeal thing, it is nevertheless from the All Highest.

24. For which reason bow ye not down in worship to man nor angels, but only to the Highest, Jehovih, for He is the Figure-head and Pinnacle of the All Highest conceived of. And in contradistinction, the all lowest; the foot of the ladder, call ye darkness and evil, and wickedness, and sin, and death and satan.

25. Attribute not to men or angels this or that, for they themselves are not first causes nor responsible but in part; but attribute all good, high, best and wise things unto Jehovih; and all evil, dark, wicked, low things to satan.

26. By these terms ye shall make plain to one another what ye mean; and it is an easy matter to look into your own souls and comprehend as to which of these two ye most incline.

27. The soul may be likened unto a vine, which can be trained either upward or downward. And if ye desire to know if a vine be up or down, look ye for the fruit, and not to the fragrance. Some men pray much, but as to good works they are like a vine without fruit, but with plenty of fragrance.